I’d have been quite happy to stay in the Royal Oak forever, but I’m always conscious of my role as an ambassador for “Weird England” in showing visitors the joys outside the tourist route.
“We’re in your hands” said Dave, worryingly. so we took them to Bermondsey. to see some railway arches.
Our route takes you past some authentic street art,
and a reminder of the musical heritage of, er, Solihull.
The regeneration/gentrification of SE1 is startling. Dick and Dave loved the Bermondsey Square development and green spaces.
When in London, you really have to do a tour of railway arch homebrewers, especially if you’re keen to get shot of excess English money before flying home.
They’d never heard of Kernel, which is comforting, and weren’t too fussed about a tour of the other over-hopped grapefruit merchants (don’t shoot the messenger, Mrs RM and I like our murk).
But they’d seen Moor cask on their travels, and I knew our favourite Somerset fish lovers might get their new Tap Room in the Beer Guide next year so win-win.
We joined the queue while Mrs RM nabbed a pew (that rhymes).
“It’s just like being in Minneapolis” said Dave, somehow implying that wasn’t great.
But they enjoyed the experience, Dick found out that Fezz 3:16 wasn’t a quote from a hitherto unknown Gospel, and they enjoyed the beer.
Pleasingly, the cask conformed to stereotype.
After that I got us lost, looking for a Kernel tap room I’d forgotten was now shut, and an artisan ice cream place that was definitely open.
Then, an unexpected bonus. An actual pub.
“Shall we go in ? Let’s go in.” said Mrs RM. And you think I’m bad.
On the face of it, the Marquis of Wellington is as good a place as any to get New London cask without a joining a long queue under a railway arch.
But the keg fonts give you a better idea of the focus here, with a Thornbridge takeover round the corner. #EvilKegLives.
The Pale and Session IPA were tasty enough (NBSS 3), if a good couple of degrees above Manchester beer temperatures.
We were the only punters over 30, never mind 50, but it felt much more a cheery local than a destination pub, and Dick once again displayed that Chicago chutzpah by quizzing blokes called Anton and Zeb (probs) on their ages and occupations. Americans can get away with anything. “A bit preppy” they thought, correctly.
The England v Nigeria match was on (I’m turning into BeerMat), and I was mildly astonished to see the youngsters watching this pointless friendly designed to promote shirt sales (Nigerian, not English). This is our year, lads. #FootballComingHome.
On to Tower Bridge. But not before Dick had left some authentic US graffiti on the authentic UK wall art (look closely).
retiredmartin 
You’ve got to be kidding me, I was in both the Moor Beer arch and The Marquess yesterday.
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If it’s not officially logged on the Beer and Pub forum “Where and When I’m Going” page, it didn’t happen. Were in Moor about 4.30 Marquess 5.30. Small world.
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Is coffee keg a new, even hipper variety I’ve yet to hear of?
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No, it’s just coffee.
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The Dark Alliance Hoppy Coffee Stout was pretty good.
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You told me you would be selling scones, you made the right choice in my book, was about an hour or two in advance of you, Marquess 3.30, a cracking day out all the same. 10 tap rooms and 3 pubs the major disappointment was the Barrel Project was closed, (another railway arch).Small world indeed.
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Did I ? Wish I had a memory. We’d sold the scones at our church by 12 so caught the train. Never plan. Expecting a good blog from you !
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Its Coming but having photo download problems, expecting a new USB cable to arrive tomorrow.
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Downloading photos the bane of my (blog )life too.
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You know you can email them to yourself, right? 🙂
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Iv’e been emailling my photos to myself for the last few weeks, takes forever to show up.
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Mine get uploaded to OneDrive, from where can upload them to my WordPress Media. Sometimes they don’t upload. I’ve just found some photos from Bruges 2015.
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Happy to see you taking in the sport!! I was actually playing cricket for first time in years yesterday so missed the Nike kit promotion…#itsouryear 😉 marquis looks a cracking pub
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“As good a place as any to get New London cask without a joining a long queue under a railway arch.” Are we talking about the queues for the totally inadequate toilet facilities in these railway arch breweries?
Their (railway arch brewers), days may be numbered anyway. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/02/small-firms-face-extermination-due-to-network-rail-asset-sale
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Ha ! Yes, the queue for the loo was longer than for the beer, and that article is timely. Russ made an allusion to it in the comment about brewers moving off-shore next !
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I asked my two sons who will be joining us at the beginning of July for two weeks lazing around a Spanish pool and watching the world cup ” Shall I bring my old England shirt purchased from Sports Direct for £2.50 two years after the world cup before last ? ”
” Nah,we’ll be out of the competition before then. ”
How can kids barely out of their teens be so pessimistic about our chances without suffering the decades of disappointment and bastard German penalties that I have ?
They’re right,of course.
How often have the words ” easy group stage ” come back to haunt us.
Brazil/Germany final.
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This time, we’ll get it right.
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“Turner Prize 2011”
That could very well be true these days. 😉
““Is that blue thing the restroom ?” said Dave”
More of a porta potty than a restroom. 🙂
“(that rhymes).”
Which says a lot about the English language right there. 😉
“Preparing to enter the Great Cask Lottery”
Three sods for sure. 🙂
“(look closely).”
I did; but what do Druid Cycles trump?
Cheers
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Young people… harumph harumph
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Bet they won’t be walking round pubs searching for Bass when they’re old like us.
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From the two “regeneration/gentrification” it looks as if some lighting has been plugged into the old trolley bus overhead wires.
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Yes it does. Dick and Dave were fascinated by some of the architectural aspects of that housing development. I just took pictures of rubbish.
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Still plenty of good boozers in Bermondsey even if it is genereally poor territory for real ale. Thay is, if you’re not happy with the increasing number of craft beer hipster version of pubs. I’m not.
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I forgot to mention in the post; those railway arch bas are incredibly loud with chat echoing around. And I like chat.
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Best post you’ve done in a long while!
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Because it features old codgers with weak bladders trudging round town looking for Proper Pubs, I guess ?
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The Moor had one thing I would not find in a similar place in Minneapolis: cask as an option. I will be curious as to whether that stays an option in these places over time. The Marquis was an interesting pub. The young people were having a great time and clearly had a lot of money in their pockets. The ambiance was great with the smell of burgers cooking up. Quite a jovial place. I think it was one of my top three pubs that day. I can see why young people are drawn there.
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You really should blog. As a guest on mine if necessary.
Some of those taprooms are keg only. We didn’t see a lot of cask served from memory.
And that burger smell !!!
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LOL. I would rather blog than do my day job…
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